Inrrmorronal Joundo/ lnrrr~~ulrural Rda,ron,. Vo, f,. pp. 127.135. ,982 0147.

1767 X2 020127-09160300 0
Pnntrd I” the USA. All rtghts rcserved. Copyright c lYH2 Pergamon Press I td

ACCULTURATION PROCESS OF COLOMBIAN

IMMIGRANTS INTO THE AMERICAN CULTURE IN
BERGEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY

JOSE G. BALDASSINI

Department of Education
Kean College of New Jersey

and

VINCENT F. FLAHERTY

Department of Education
Saint Peter% College, New Jersey

ABSTRACT: This research was conducted to analyze the acculturation process of

Colombian immigrants in the Hackensack area of Bergen County, New Jersey. The
instrument used to measure acculturation was a questionnaire developed by
Szapoczniket al. (1978). Thesubjects were218 Colombian immigrantsplacedinage
categoriesfrom 13 to 68 years, and 70 native American high school students, as the
reference group. The study addressed three questions: (1) Is there any relationship
between acculturation of the immigrants and the length of time they reside in the
new culture? (2) Does age affect the process of acculturation? (3) Is sex afactor in the
process of acculturation? The results of the study showed that (I) acculturation
appeared to progress as a function of the length of time Colombian immigrants
resided in the host culture (2) the degree of acculturation appeared to be afunction
of the age of the Colombian immigrants, and (3) generally, males appeared to
acculturate more than females. Young males appeared to acculturate more than
young females on the behavioral scale. However, in the value scale, young
Colombian females appeared to move more readily toward the American reference
groups than did young Colombian males.

INTRODUCTION

All immigrants confront a new cultural reality that affects and often
changes their lives in the host culture. The process whereby this change
takes place is called acculturation. Some research has been done on the
acculturation process and its behavioral consequences on the Mexican

Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. Jose G. Baldassini, Department of Educational
Arts and Systems, Kean College. Union, New Jersey 070X3.

127
128 Jose G. Baldassini and Vincent F. Fluherr.)

American population (Olmedo. Martinez & Martinez, 1978) the Puerto

Rican population (O’Flannery, 1962; Cordasco & Bucchioni, 1972). and
the Cuban American population (Hogges & Hogges, 1976; Szapocznik,
Scopetta, Kurtines & Aranalde, 1978), but no research on the process of
acculturation and its behavioral consequences has been done on
Colombian Americans. Colombians form the fourth-largest group of
Spanish speaking immigrants in the United States, following Mexican
American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban immigrants.
Following a psychological model of acculturation developed by
Srapocznik et al. (1978) at the Spanish Family Guidance Clinic,
University of Miami, Florida, this report presents a study of the process
of acculturation of Colombian immigrants into the United States,
specifically in Bergen County, New Jersey. The hypotheses and ways of
testing them were the same as those employed by Szapocznik et al.
(1978); namely, (1) an individual’s acculturation is a linear process that
advances as a function of the time the person has been in contact with
the host culture: the longer the time a person has been exposed to a new
culture, the greater the acculturation level. (2) The degree of ac-
culturation is a function of the age of the individual. This means that the
younger a person is when exposed to the new culture the more the
person will become acculturated. (3) For males and females the degree of
acculturation is different: males will acculturate more than females.

METHOD

Three samples were drawn. Sample 1 consisted of 150 Colombian

adults, 77 males and 73 females, randomly taken from the Colombian
immigrant population living in Hackensack, New Jersey. Sample 2
consisted of 68 high school Colombian students, 30 males and 38 females
from Hackensack High School. Samples 1 and 2 together consisted of
218 Colombian immigrants representing approximately 7% of the total
Colombian population (3,000) of the Hackensack area.’ The reference
group, Sample 3, consisted of 70 native American high school students,
38 males and 32 females, randomly taken from Hackensack High
School. Initial contacts were obtained through the offices of the
Colombian Club of Hackensack, New Jersey, and with the cooperation
of the Superintendent of the Hackensack School System.

THE INSTRUMENT

The instrument to measure acculturation used in this study consisted

‘Bureau lor Hispanic Assistance. Local Employment Action Program. L.E.A.P. Project.
Brr,yeu C’oun/~~ Acrwn Prograv~, /n~or~~orarcd. Hackcnsack. New Jersey, 1978.
 Acculturation Process 129

of a questionnaire developed by Szapocznik, Scopetta, Kurtines, and

Aranalde (1978) and first used with the Cuban population in the Miami
area. References to “Cuban” were changed to “Colombian” with respect
to both the behavioral and value scales of the instrument.
The questionnaire contained two scales. The first scale, called the
behavioral scale, included 24 items in the format of a five-point Likert
scale. The items of this first scale refer to language preference, custom
preference, and social activity preference of the respondents, which
indicated to what degree the individual preferred the native over the new
culture in his present environment. The possible range of scores on the
behavioral scale was 24 to 120, with a total score of 24 indicating
minimum tendency toward behavioral acculturation and 120 maximum
tendency toward acculturation. The second scale, the value acculturation
scale, while somewhat less valid than the behavioral scale (Szapocznik,
et al., 1978) attempted to measure the degree of lineality and/or
individuality of the respondents. High lineality indicated a preference for
hierarchical relationships, as characteristic of the Latin culture, and high
individuality, as characteristic of the American culture. The range of
scores on the value scale was 10 to 30, with 30 indicating a tendency
toward acceptance of the host culture’s values.

DISCUSSION

First Hypothesis

To test the first hypothesis the scores of the behavioral and value
acculturation scales were correlated with the length of time the subject
resided in the host culture. The first analysis done was a correlation
between scores on the behavioral and the value scales, and years of
residency in the United States for Colombian high school students only.
The correlation between scores on the behavioral scale and length of time
in the United States was r = 0.38 (p < .05). The correlation indicated
that a significant relationship existed between the degree of behavioral
acculturation and the length of time in the host culture. The results
implied an acceptance of the host culture’s language, customs, and social
life as a linear function of the length of time of exposure to the new
culture. An analysis on the scatterplot diagrams indicated that the
relationships were not curvilinear. The correlation between scores of the
value scale and length of time in the United States was r = .I8 (p <
.06990). The scores of Colombian high school students on the value scale
did not appear to be significantly correlated with their length of time in
the United States.
The second analysis performed was a correlation between accultura-
tion scores on the behavioral and the value scales, and years in the
130 Jose G. Baldassini and Vincent F. Flaherty

United States for Colombian high school students by sex. The results of
these correlations were as follows: the correlation between the behavioral
scale and the length of time of residency for males was r = 0.48 @ <
.003), and for females r = .31 (p < .02). The correlation between the
scores on the value scale and the length of time for males was r = 0.13 @
< .24067), and for females r = 0.27 @ < .05).
It is important to observe that when correlating behavioral scores
with number of years in the United States by sex, both males and
females were found to produce a significant correlation in that
variable. For males, however, the behavioral correlation coefficient
was higher than that of females. Conversely, when value scores were
examined in terms of length of time in the United States, the
correlation for female students was much higher than that of male
students. Thus, in terms of value acculturation, adolescent females
appeared to be somewhat more accepting of the values of the
reference group than were males. This finding seems to imply that
when correlations were drawn between scores on the value scale and
years in the United States for the entire Colombian high school group
(first analysis), male and female students combined, males affected the
overall results contrary to the hypothesis direction. It was felt that this
finding deserved some additional consideration. Males seem to
accommodate more easily than females to external behavior of the
host culture as measured by the behavioral scale. Males enjoyed
somewhat more freedom to interact with the reference group than did
females. Parents, according to the interviews of the authors, do not
limit male external behavior as much as female external behavior. In
other words, not only must the female be lady-like in her behavior,
but she must be a lady-like Colombian with all the behavioral cultural
implications that that implies.
On the other hand, in terms of value acculturation, female adolescents
appeared to be more accepting of the values of the referent group than
males. Young females may be holding back on external behavior due to
the pressure of the family, including young adolescent males, while
apparently absorbing values of the referent group more rapidly than
young males. Young males, on the other hand, may see themselves
enjoying the condition of being Colombian males, future heads of
families, the last word in family-decision-making, and may have
expressed indirectly in the scores on the value scale a rejection of
individuality and movement toward lineality, in a situation where they
are dominant figures and where females play a submissive role. The low
scoring of males in the value scale may also be a sign of fear on the part
of the male Colombian students of losing their “machismo control.”
Females, on the other hand, may see a refreshing sense of freedom long
cherished in their minds, but one they are hardly able to express.
 Acculturation Process 131

The third analysis was a correlation between scores on the behavioral

and value scales and years in the United States for Colombian adults.
The results of the third analysis showed that the correlation between the
scores on the behavioral scale and number of years of residency in the
United States was r = - .02 (p < .37346), which is non-significant, and
the correlation between the scores on the value scale and years in the
United States was r = -.17 (p < .Ol). The negative correlation between
the degree of acculturation on the value scale and length of time
Colombians were in residence in the United States was significant at p <
.Ol. It seemed that with Colombian adults, the longer they were in the
new culture the more they tended to resist value acculturation.

Second Hypothesis
In the second hypothesis, age was studied as a factor in the process of
acculturation. It was assumed that the younger a person was when

TABLE 1
Means, Standard Deviations and F Ratios for the Acculturation Scales,
and for Years in the United States by Psychosocial Stage

Behavioral Value Years in the

Acculturation Acculturation U.S.

N -z SD x SD Y SD
Early
Adolescence 70 76.9 14.0 20.2 3.6 6.98 4.24
(13-17)

Later
Adolescence 29 70.6 15.3 20.9 3.7 6.34 5.73
(18-22)

Early
Adulthood 33 64.4 13.5 19.3 3.4 7.43 4.48
(23-30)

Middle
Adulthood 73 53.1 13.7 18.1 2.4 9.32 4.87
(31-50)

Later
Adulthood 13 50.8 18.1 17.4 3.1 11.55 7.33
(50 + )

F Ratio 29.029a 6.795a 4.182b

“p < .Ol
bp< ,002
132 Jose G. Baldassini and Vincent F. Flahertr

exposed to a new culture, the more the person would become accul-
turated. To measure this expectation the two Colombian groups,
Samples 1 and 2, were combined in one group (N = 218). Their ages
ranged from 13 to 68 years. Five sub-groups were created according to
five psychosocial stages developed by Newman and Newman (1975). The
first stage was called Early Adolescence, from 13 to 17; the second, Later
Adolescence, from 18 to 22; the third, Early Adulthood, from 23 to 30;
the fourth, Middle Adulthood, from 31 to 50; and the fifth, Later
Adulthood, 51 years of age and over.
To test the hypothesis, two analyses were performed. First, an
analysis of variance was done between the scores on the behavioral and
value acculturation scales and the five psychosocial stages. Predictably,
the highest mean score on the behavioral scale was obtained by the Early
Adolescence group (x = 76.94) followed by the other psychosocial
stages in descending order as shown in Table 1. An analysis of the
behavioral acculturation scale, Table 1, clearly revealed that inter-
generational differences in measured behavioral acculturation were
highly significant F (4,213) = 29.02 @ < .O1). An analysis of the means
and standard deviations of the value acculturation scale, Table I, also
indicated intergenerational differences as being significant F (4,213) 6.79
= @ < .Ol). This was true even though the years in the United States
were slightly higher for the older age group. Colombian adolescents
enjoy the important reassurance of the school as they mature and adjust
to the new culture. Most of the parents, however, lack this opportunity.
This rapid cultural change on the part of the Colombian youngsters
increases the cultural differences between them and their parents.

Third Hypothesis

The third factor studied in this research referred to the sex of the
immigrants. According to this third hypothesis males will acculturate
more readily than females. It was expected that males would have higher
scores on the behavioral and value scales.
To test this hypothesis the scores of both acculturation scales were
compared for males and females, adults and students combined (males N
= 104; females N = 114). On the behavioral scale males had a mean of
68.92 and females a mean of 60.85 with a t-value of 3.45 significant at .Ol
level. This demonstrated a significant difference in the way males and
females responded to the questionnaire. On the value scale males had a
mean of 19.83 and females a mean of 18.85 with a t-value of 2.09
significant at .03 level. The statistical analysis showed a trend supporting
the hypothesis that males acculturate more than females on the
behavioral and value scales. However, when comparing the results of
Ho3 with the results of Ho], in the second analysis, where young females
 Acculturation Process 133

tended to be more like the reference group, this trend is not quite so clear
on the value scale. It may indicate that in the process of acculturation the
age factor is more influential than the sex factor.
In the analysis of both the behavioral and value scale scores of HOJ, no
significant difference was found between ages of male and female
respondents, nor in numbers of years of residency of male and female
respondents, therefore, the differences in acculturation for males and
females cannot be explained by differences in length of time or in age
between the two genders, but seem to be associated exclusively with sex
difference.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

With respect to the differences of findings between Szapocznik et al.

(1978) and the present study in the value scale scores of females (HOI),
additional research and understanding of the contribution of the female
participants in the process of acculturation would be useful. Additional
studies of the effect of sex on acculturation with particular reference to
value acculturation should be made. These studies should be extended to
include the full spectrum of the Hispanics in the United States. Special
attention should be paid to young Hispanic females. They seem to be
attracted by the lure of the American sense of freedom. In this study,
young Colombian females have been shown to be more accepting of the
individualistic approach to interacting with others than young Colom-
bian males. This may add a new problem to the intergenerational
acculturation. It may create an intragenerational acculturational gap
between young males and females. Special workshops for immigrant
parents and other adults should be created to impress upon them the
seriousness of these cultural changes that so deeply affect their own and
their children’s lives. These programs or workshops should also aim to
make adults and youngsters aware of the complex process of accul-
turation and give them remedies to endure frustrations during a long
period of potentially traumatic change.

REFERENCES

CORDASCO, F., & BUCCHIONI, E. The Puerto Rican Community and its
children on the Mainland: Other professionals. Metuchen, New Jersey: The
Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1972.
HOGGES, R., & HOGGES, L. A study offactors affecting Cuban parents-child
interaction. Tamiani Train, Miami, Florida: Florida International University,
1976.
KLUCKHOHN, F.R., & STRODBECK, F.L. Variations in value orientations.
Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, 1961.
134 Jose G. Baldassini and Vincent F. Flahert?

NEWMAN, B.M., &NEWMAN, P.R. Development through life: apsychological

approach. Homewood, 1llinois:The Dorsey Press,1975.
O'FLANNERY,E.Socialandculturalassimilation.In F.Cordasco&E.Bucchioni
(Eds.), The Puerto Rican community and its children on the workers and other
professionals. Metuchen,New Jersey: The ScarecrowPress, 1972.
OLMEDO, E.L., MARTINEZ, J.L., & MARTINEZ, S.R. Measure of accul-
turation for Chicano adolescents. Psychological Reports, 1978, 42, 159-170.
SZAPOCZNIK, J., SCOPETTA, M.A., KURTINES, W., & ARANALDE, M.
Theory and measurement of acculturation. InterAmerican Journal of Psy-
chology, 1978,12, 113-130.

ABSTRACTTRANSLATIONS

Des travaux de recherche ont Cte' faits pour ana yser le

processus d ’ "acculturation" d' immigrants Colombiens dans la
r&gion de Hackensack, dans le Corn& de Bergen, New Jersey.
Pour mesurer cette "acculturation", on s'est servi d'un
questionnaire d&eloppe par Szapocznik et al. (1978). Les
sujets gtaient, d'une part, 218 immigrants Colombiens, groupe's
ar age de 13 a 68 ans, et d'autre part, 70 gtudiants de
F: High School", Ame/ricains de naissance, comme gro.upe tgmoin.
Cette gtude abordait trois questions: (1) Y-a-t-i1 un rapport
entre 1' "acculturation" des immigrants et la dur&e de leur
sCjour dans la nouvelle culture? (2) L'age exerce-t-i1 une
influence sur le processus d' "acculturation"? (3) Le sexe
entre-t-il en facteur dans le processus d' "acculturation"?
Les re'sultats de cette e'tude ont montrg: (1) que 1' "accultur-
ation" semble progresser en fonction de la dure'e du se'jour des
immigrants dans leur nouveau milieu culturel; (2) que la degr&
d' "acculturationll paralt gtroitement lie' a l'age des immigrants
Colombiens; (3) qu'en g&&al, il semble que les hornmes
S’ "acculturent" mieux ques les femmes. Sur l'e'chelle du
comportement, il semble que les jeunes gens s' "acculturent"
mieux que les jeunes filles. Cependant, sur l'e'chelle des
valeurs, les jeunes filles Colombiennes semblent plus promptes
2 se reapprocher du groupe tgmoin que les jeunes gens Colombiens.

Esta investigaci& cientcfica fue' realizada con el fin de

analizar el proceso de "aculturamiento" de 10s imigrantes
Colombianos residentes en 10s alrededores de la ciudad de
Hackensack, condado de Bergen, New Jersey. El instrument0
sicolo'gico usado para medir el "aculturamiento" fue'un
cuestionario desarrollado por Szapocznik, et al. (1978). Los
sujetos de este estudio fueron 218 inmigrantes Colombianso con
edades de 13 a 68 aiios, y 70 nativos Americanos, estudiantes
de liceo, coma grupo de referencia. El estudio enfoco' tres
preguntas: (1) tExiste alguna relacicn entre "aculturamiento"
de 10s inmigrantes y el tiempo que ellos han residido en la
nueva cultura? (2) lAfecta la edad el proceso de "acultura-
miento"? (3) tTiene el sex0 alguna importancia en el proceso
do "aculturamiento"? Los resultados de1 estudio mostraron que
(1) el "aculturamiento" (proceso de cambio) parecio' estar en
funcio'n de la duracidn de1 tiempo que 10s inmigrantes
Colombianos habian vivid0 en la nueva cultura; (2) el grado
 Acculturation Process 135

de "aculturamiento" result6 estar en funcio'n de la edad de

10s inmigrantes Colombianos; (3) en general, 10s varones
mostraron cambiar m& que Las mujeres hacia la nueva cultura.
Los j6venes mostraron cambiar m& que las jo'venes en la escala
de conducta, (que medl'a la conducta extema). Sin embargo, en
la escala de valores (que medfa 10s valores intemos), las
jkenes Colombianas mostraron aceptar m&s f&iimente que 10s
jo'venes 10s valores de1 grupo (modelo) de referencia.